I soon learned that Sara was “very keen to change the world's perspective about [her] country, Sudan,” and that she had always thought it was unfair that the world could know so much about American culture via the media, and yet so little about hers. (And I agreed).
Over these last few weeks, these issues have been increasingly on my mind. But there has been one storyline in particular that I just can't get out of my head.
In her Ted Talk, Chimamanda Adichie refers to this storyline as the “single story of Africa.” But to me, it feels like the single story of the developing world. It is the story of the people who are “unable to speak for themselves,” of the people who are “waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner.”
Next year, Josh and I will embark on a new journey, as volunteers in rural Bolivia and Peru. In pursuing this path, Josh and I have worked diligently to find host organizations that are committed to local community development. The organizations we will partner with do not rely on volunteers to carry out their development projects; rather, volunteers like Josh and I act as secondary systems of support—welcomed and appreciated when we are able to help, but not depended upon.
It was last spring, during our second trip to Nepal, that Josh and I got serious about volunteering internationally.
